Lawmakers review reports on environment protection, supply-side structural reform

BEIJING — Chinese lawmakers on Wednesday called for more efforts to protect the environment and advance supply-side structural reform at the ongoing bi-monthly session of the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee.

State Council reports on environmental protection and supply-side structural reform were reviewed by lawmakers at panel discussions of the session, which runs Monday to Thursday.

Zhang Dejiang, chairman of the NPC Standing Committee, joined lawmakers in deliberation.

Most lawmakers of the NPC Standing Committee made favorable comments and raised suggestions about the two reports. They agreed that the shift from traditional economic growth engines to new ones should be accelerated and fair competition should be guaranteed through better laws and regulations.

At the group discussions on environmental protection, Luo Liangquan said efforts should be made to strengthen supervision on law enforcement and improve the environmental monitoring system.

According to the report, China received 33,000 tip-offs on environmental violations in 2016, issued fines worth 440 million yuan ($64 million) in 8,500 cases, and detained 720 people in more than 800 cases.

Liu Zhengkui said that a national coordination mechanism should be established to manage and monitor the marine environment as the ecosystems of the country's bays are deteriorating.

Liu advised the country to invest more to restore important sea areas, coastal zones and islands.

Chen Weiwen called for publishing detailed indexes of water pollutants and improving information transparency on the quality of drinking water.

The 338 cities monitored by the Ministry of Environmental Protection enjoyed good air quality on 78.8 percent of days in 2016, up 2.1 percentage points from 2015.